I bought piezo flush and carts for PK, C, and VLM. They were partially clogged. I was not able to do an initial fill as I can’t find a service program for Mac. So, I tried the Quatone RIP and it would not print from that program. I wrote Roy Harrington (the writer I guess of that program) but no help on that front. So I made up some prints that were essentially cyan, black and vivid light magenta and just started printing. A LOT!!! The black I can see is transitioning to flush, but the VLM seems to have either run out of ink without picking up and piezo flush or it just became completely clogged from printing so much ink. In any event nothing is coming out of that nozzle. I checked the level of the flush in that cart and reprimed. Still nothing. Any thoughts?
When you have a problem like a clog you do not want to use the print head to try and clear itself by printing, but rather use the capping station to clear the print head by sucking. The QTR program does work for the 4900 and you can download our manual for using it and making purge images and try and figure that out on your own - but it’s much less effective an significantly less effective. Think of a vacuum machine versus a broom and trying to get sand and debris out from some deep crevice. The broom may get some of it out while it is putting some of it back in.
I would beg or borrow a laptop from someone - or install Windows for Parallels on your Mac.
Our Piezography manual is here and we do recommend purging images to remove ink from the lines in some of the digital neg sections: http://www.piezography.com/techsupport look for the NEW Piezography manual.
If you need or want QTR support you need to pay their shareware - and I really do not recommend you clear your clogs by printing flush fluid.
“When you have a problem like a clog you do not want to use the print head to try and clear itself by printing, but rather use the capping station to clear the print head by sucking.” how do I do this? Even an initial charge purges the lines by “pushing” ink (or in this case flush) through the lines doesn’t it?
I paid Roy the $50 before trying the program and have had no help from him. I have followed the directions obtained from your site to flush the head using QTR and it won’t print. I’m confused as the link from your site recommends the QTR software and “printing” to flush the lines and now if I understand you correctly this is not the thing to do. This is really baffling.
What link from our site says to print to clear a clog?
The instructions on all PiezoFlush products lead to the flushing instruction on this site. Please let me know what you read differently.
Here’s the link http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/content.php?144-Print-Ink-Separation-Image-thru-QTR-Calibration-Mode . I went to this to try and use the RIP software to flush individual lines thinking that it would use less ink AND because I use MAC and the service manuals are written for windows. If you look at the bottom of the page you will see instructions to flush lines by printing. There was another link as well with more specific info but it eludes me at the moment, I will send it to you if/when it resurfaces. But that doesn’t answer my question about how to suck the lines. Are you saying that the initial fill process “sucks” ink into the line? Via the capping station? If so does the cleaning cycle also work by “sucking?”
ok - that is definitely not for clearing clogs - that is for changing out inks. We do not recommend printing to clear a clog. You can try it if you like and you may have success - but it is not our recommended method.
A head cleaning most definitely sucks the ink out with a powerful pump. It is used just momentarily so as not to use up a lot of ink. The ink INITIAL CHARGE uses a lot of ink and applies the suction for a long period of time. it is most effective with PiezoFlush.
If you wish to use the QTR and print - you do need to install it correctly.
On Mac OSX you will also need to install QTR Print Tool so that you can use the Calibration Mode without MacOS X converting the inkseparation target and changing the RGB values.
You can get a 30 day trial to use.
You will need to open the inkseparation10 image and take the 100% density of the channel that is affected and scale it over the entire image, then save it without attaching a profile to it.
Open it in Print Tool - and print to QTR from their using Calibration mode.
What version of MacOS X are you on?
you said it would not print - what error occurred? Did you read enough in the Piezography manual to understand how to install QTR and create the QTR K7 driver, etc???
Sorry Jon for the last post, I missed your post about initial charge/clean/pump etc. Thanks that helps me to understand. You have said that repeated clean cycles are bad for the heads, is that mostly just the power clean or any clean? Can I do repeated cleans to pull the piezoflush into the heads as long as I don’t do repeated power cleans? How would this differ from the initial charge? I would like to find an option to the problem of using MAC and and avoid having to set up a windows computer with all the drivers etc to use a service program.
Also, what I have tried to do with the “print to flush” is to get the piezoflush into the lines and heads not really to “clean.” This as i said has worked pretty well in the C and PK lines, but the VLM which was the most clogged is resisting. Can I do repeated standard cleans to pull the piezoflush into that line without risking undue damage to the head?
Our experience with the 4900 is that it takes up to 50 head cleanings to move flush from the cart to the print head. doing so will move the same amount of ink in all the other positions as the INITIAL CHARGE. What will be missing of course is the prolonged suction of an INITIAL CHARGE which takes about 7-8 minutes to complete. The 50 head cleanings will take you probably some hours. These are little sips of ink at a time.
Again - we can only recommend what we know works. We can advise you in what you would rather try on your own if we can. So, in that case, do NOT use powerful paired cleanings as there is a legitimate advisory that the use of many in a row is damaging to the print head.
The service program is a great tool and it is too bad that the Epson repair people only use Windows machines. But it is still what is most effective.
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